Castle Rock, a just-announced series from Hulu with some rather bold-faced names attached — including J.J. Abrams and Stephen King — hasn’t even begun production yet but is already drumming up some serious buzz. The teaser for the psychological-horror show, uploaded to YouTube last Friday, has already been viewed more than 1 million times.
Castle Rock is being produced by J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot Productions and Warner Bros. Television, who previously collaborated with Hulu on the James Franco-starring series 11.22.63, based on King’s novel of the same name.
Castle Rock is set in a fictional Maine town where several of King’s most famous novels have taken place, including Cujoand It. Written and executive produced by Sam Shaw and Dustin Thomason (Manhattan), the series will “explore the themes and worlds uniting the entire King canon, while brushing up against some of his most iconic and beloved stories,” according to a release. Abrams, Ben Stephenson, and Liz Glotzer will also serve as executive producers.
Hulu has ordered 10 episodes of Castle Rock, with production set to begin this year. A release date has yet to be announced. While the series will be available exclusively via Hulu in the U.S., Warner Bros. will distribute the project globally. Check out a teaser below:
In addition to 11.22.63, Bad Robot is also behind the acclaimed HBO drama Westworld. Hulu, which has a skinny bundle of live cable channels in the works that is set to include CBS and will reportedly be priced under $40, most recently unveiled the trailer for yet another highly-anticipated original series based on the work of a famed author: Margaret Atwood’s dystopian drama The Handmaid’s Tale.
Filed under: Hulu by Geoff Weiss Comments Off on Hulu To Re-Team With Stephen King And J.J. Abrams For Horror Series ‘Castle Rock’
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a rankings column from Tubefilter. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of creators, channels, and broadcasters based on statistics collected within a given time frame from a growing number of online video and social media platforms. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here. For just the Live.me Top Broadcaster Rankings, click here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Live.me Top Broadcaster Rankings.
It’s our seventh installment of our weekly Tubefilter Chartof theTop 50 Live.me Broadcasters. We had an unbelievable response to our premiere edition, as industry insiders, established Live.me talent, and burgeoning broadcasters pored over the list to see who’s making moves and which creators are worth tuning into on the nascent live streaming platform.
And for anyone new to the Top Live.me Broadcaster Rankings, check out our brief explanation of how this chart came to be (Spoiler Alert: It has a lot do with the booming soon-to-be $70 billion industry that is live video) and the methodology behind the rankings in our first post of this new series right here.
And for those unfamiliar with Live.me, below is a quick intro to the live broadcasting platform that now is home to hundreds of thousands of hours of live broadcasts per day and was born out of the Beijing-based Cheetah Mobile less than a year ago in April 2016.
Broadcasters
As we enter our seventh week of coverage, we’re starting to see some mainstays in the rankings. There are still seven channels, for instance, that have had a presence in the Top 50 every single week. They are, in order of their appearance on the chart below:
Kristina Plisko❤️💋
👑FRECK💂FFG CGC
TheRealKatherinRojas
F.O.E👑uncleluke504
David Bush ♛
G🍼GHardhead7Emperor
Ashcatash🔮
The individuals behind the channels above have proven they have a sustained ability to maintain an engaged and active audience in their broadcasts. We’ll look to bring you more information about them in the coming weeks, as well as dive into more broadcasters on the rankings.
In the meantime, check out the below to see who’s doing live broadcasts well and the rising stars you should acquaint yourself with on the platform. Know that everyone in the Top 50, and especially those towards the top, are at the very least highly adept at building an audience and keeping that audience tuned in and engaged to their broadcasts.
If you don’t yet have Live.me, you can download the app right here. Just search for the user listed below in the application and tune in.
Launched in April 2016, Live.me is a fast growing live broadcasting community which lets people discover new content, build a following, and earn cash rewards, no matter who they are. Live.me is geared towards surfacing daily entertainment and provides the tools to make the most of being live, in the moment. The mobile app is available on both iPhone and Android.
Much in the same way that is has sought to bolster the profiles of some of its top creators through multimedia ad campaigns in the United States and across the pond, YouTube has launched its first-ever television and digital campaign in India to showcase local channels.
The campaign is themed #SeeSomethingNew, and, like previous iterations, features creators across a multitude of genres, including food, comedy, music, and technology, reports afaqs!, an Indian advertising news website. “We selected creator channels based on a variety of quantitative and qualitative measures,” Satya Raghavan, head of entertainment content for Youtube in India, told the outlet.
YouTube has launched several standalone offerings for the Indian market in recent months. In addition to YouTube Go, which helps Indian viewers browse YouTube without exceeding their mobile data limits, the company unveiled a standalone Indian YouTube Kids app last November.
“Improved connectivity in India is leading to massive growth in online video content consumption,” Raghavan told afaqs!. “We want to invest in turbocharging this growth and create opportunities for our creators to succeed online.”
Filed under: YouTube by Geoff Weiss Comments Off on YouTube Launches Ad Campaign In India To Spotlight Local Creators
For more than two decades, ESPN has livened up its commercial breaks with its “This Is SportsCenter” ads, which satirize the world of sports and the outsized figures within it in order to bring attention to ESPN’s daily news program. “This Is SportsCenter” has received widespread acclaim as well as millions of views on platforms like YouTube, and they have introduced viewers to a world in which sports stars and news anchors co-exist in an office setting.
Now, ESPN is expanding that world. As reported by Digiday, the Worldwide Leader in Sports is creating original digital video shorts within the SportsCenter brand. These videos will be distributed on the ESPN website, through the network’s mobile app, and across other social platforms.
The SportsCenter digital shorts will feature the program’s hosts and top athletes mingling with one another. A video noted by Digiday, for example, features former NBA star Magic Johnson as he whips behind-the-back passes to a pair of anchors.
The goal is to make these shorts distinct form SportsCenter’s TV coverage, which adopts its own witty and irreverent tone in order to cover the day’s sports headlines. “If we do it right, this will turn into a virtuous cycle of creating content that works in digital, and turn around and present that within our linear shows, and vice versa,” said Rob King, ESPN’s SVP of SportsCenter and News.
It’s unclear how YouTube will fit into ESPN’s digital SportsCenter plans, if at all. “This Is SportsCenter” commercials are popular there, and ESPN recently resumed activity on its YouTube channel after a long hiatus. Some SportsCenter shorts could bring a big audience to that hub, though ESPN seems more interested in sharing content through its website and apps.
Filed under: Articles, ESPN, Featured, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on ESPN’s ‘SportsCenter’ To Add Digital Originals To Its Repertoire
The actor and performance artistShia LaBeouf is bringing his four-year-long live stream, dubbled HeWillNotDivide.Us, from New York City to New Mexico. The performance art project, launched by LaBeouf alongside collaborators Nastja Säde Rönkkö and Luke Turner on Inauguration Day in response to the election of President Donald Trump, was formerly hosted by New York’s Museum Of The Moving Image. However, following LaBeouf’s arrest after a dispute with a visitor in January, the museum called the project “a serious and ongoing public safety hazard” and shuttered the endeavor on Feb. 10.
“As of February 18, 2017,” reads a statement from LaBeouf, Rönkkö, and Turner, “we are proud to be continuing HeWillNotDivide.Us at the El Rey Theater, Albuquerque.”
The performance art project consists of a camera and microphone affixed to a wall of the El Rey Theater, reports the Albuquerque Journal, with the words ‘He will not divide us’ written overhead. (The ‘he’ refers to Trump). Passersby are invited to visit the installment over the next four years and chant the phrase as many times as they wish. The stream airs live on HeWillNotDivide.Us. (The camera was initially installed outside of the Museum Of The Moving Image.)
“From the outset,” reads the new statement from LaBeouf, Rönkkö, and Turner, “the museum failed to address our concerns about the misleading framing of our piece as a political rally, rather than as a participatory performance artwork resisting the normalization of division…Their evident lack of commitment to the project is damning.”
Facebook is once again attempting to clone Snapchat. Following the launch of Instagram Stories last August — the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app’s very own ephemeral messaging feature — now, WhatsApp, another Facebook property, has launched Status, which lets users share decorated photos, videos, and GIFs that disappear after 24 hours. However, as will all WhatsApp content, the messages are encrypted from end-to-end.
“Yes,” the company wrote in a blog post announcing the new feature, “even your status updates are end-to-end encrypted.”
Given WhatsApp’s international appeal, the move could impact Snapchat’s global growth, reports Techcrunch, especially as Snapchat readies an IPO next month that could value the company at as much as $25 billion. Instagram has already become a bonafide Stories competitor. In January, for instance, Instagram announced that it had already clocked 150 million Stories daily users, which is roughly the same as Snapchat’s 161 million.
WhatsApp began testing its new Status feature — which will live in a separate tab within the app — last November, and it is now rolling out globally on iOS, Android, and Windows Phone to coincide with the company’s eighth birthday. Techcrunch also notes that, while WhatsApp has not yet forayed into advertising, Status could represent a prime opportunity to do so — much in the same way that video ads are popularly slotted between Snapchat and Instagram Stories.
In its blog, WhatsApp says that it originally launched eight years ago as an away message service enabling users to provide status updates to their friends. While it ultimately moved into messaging, the new Status feature represents an aim to recapture its origins, according to the company. WhatsApp counts a staggering 1.2 billion monthly users who send 60 billion messages per day — including 3.3 billion photos and 760 million videos, Techcrunch reports.
Filed under: Facebook by Geoff Weiss Comments Off on WhatsApp, Another Facebook Property, Has Launched A Snapchat Clone Called ‘Status’
The Spectacles are camera-equipped, seamlessly connect to the Snapchat app, and can record video 10 seconds at a time. This results in circular uploads and a truly hands-free video recording experience that’s excited brands and content creators alike.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a new weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by OpenSlate. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given timeframe. You can check out all of our Tubefilter Charts – with new installments every week – right here.]
Scroll down for the Tubefilter Chart.
It’s another installment of the Top 100 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide and the internet-connected masses love them some Indian programming.
Chart Toppers
T-Series held onto its first-place position on the most-viewed YouTube channels chart for the fifth month in a row. India’s self-described “largest music label and movie studio” continues to rack up insane monthly view counts edging dangerously close to 10 digits. Its January numbers were down 5% from the month before, but still totaled more than 844.2 million views. In a kinda-close-but-still-pretty-far second place is Ryan ToysReview. Ryan’s destination for all your toy unboxing and playtime needs dropped 7% in views to close out the month just shy of 695.3 million.
In the #3 spot is still Canal KondZilla. The YouTube outpost for Brazil’s latest poppy, Portuguese-language music video hits continued to climb up at a steady clip. The channel saw a 21% bump in its view count to take home nearly 611.4 million views on the month. SET India is next up in fourth place. Sony Music Entertainment’s Indian outpost on the world’s largest video sharing site was up 20% in views to take home almost 538.1 million of them throughout the month.
And rounding out the Top 5 is, once again, netd müzik. Turkish entertainment conglomerate Doğan Holding’s YouTube channel saw a modest 2% increase in views to score more than 486.2 million of them throughout the month.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our our Top Gainers this month goes Ed Sheeran.
The 26-year-old English singer-songwriter had a great month on YouTube thanks to a handful of lyric and music video releases from his upcoming album Divide. Two video versions of the singles “Shape Of You” and “Castle on the Hill” each earned view counts in the eight- or nine-figure range, helping Sheeran’s channel to a 348% month-over-month increase in views, almost 353.6 million views on the month, and the #18 spot on the worldwide chart.
Channel Distribution
The Top 100 Most Viewed YouTube channels this month amassed in aggregate a total of 26,092,241,253 views. Here’s a look at the distribution of those channels broken down by the most-represented YouTube Multi-Channel Networks on the chart:
VEVO:17 channels in the Top 100. Shakira is the network’s highest ranking channel at #7.
BroadbandTV, Studio71: 5 channels each in the Top 100, with BBTV’s WorldStarHipHop at #36 and Studio71’s FamilyFunPack at #22.
Maker Studios: 4 channels in the Top 100, with Markiplier at #49.
AIR, BuzzFeed, Machinima, Movieclips, ONErpm, StyleHaul, WMG, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 100, with AIR’s Mister Max at #62, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #45, Machinima’s ToyPudding at #14, Movieclips’ Movieclips at #46, ONEprm’s Canal KondZilla at #3, StyleHaul’s TheDiamondMinecart at #35, WMG’s Ed Sheeran at #18, and XMediaDigital’s mashamedvedtv at #23.
And here’s a look into the distribution of the this month’s Top 100 by country of origin:
The United States: 47 channels in the Top 100.
India: 10 channels in the Top 100.
Great Britain: 7 channels in the Top 100.
Canada: 6 channels in the Top 100.
Brazil, South Korea: 4 channels each in the Top 100.
Thailand: 3 channels in the Top 100.
Argentina, Puerto Rico, Russia, Spain, Ukraine: 2 channels each in the Top 100.
El Salvador, Ireland, Jamaica, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Philippines, Sweden, Turkey:1 channel each in the Top 100.
OpenSlate is a video content analytics platform that tracks more than 800,000 YouTube video channels and measures their ability to attract, engage and influence an audience. By providing one consistent measure of quality – the SlateScore™ – OpenSlate helps marketers, producers and agencies hone their online video marketing strategy.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by OpenSlate. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart.
It’s another installment of the weeklyTubefilter Chartof theTop 50 Most Viewed U.S. YouTube Channelsand a five year-old is still on top.
Ryan ToysReview held onto its first-place position on the U.S. chart for the twenty-fifth week in a row. Five-year-old Ryan’s video home replete with videos of him unboxing and playing with toys dipped 9% in views to take home more than 164.1 million on the week. In a distantish second place is WWE. World Wrestling Entertainment’s YouTube destination dropped 11% in views, but still slammed home over 121.1 million views during the week.
Shakira is next up in the #3 spot. The Columbia-born, US-residing musical multi-hyphenate’s home on YouTube dipped 19% to bottom out at just about 92.2 million views in the week. In fourth place is another international pop star. Katy Perry‘s channel climbed up 19% in views to close out the week at over 86.7 million views.
And rounding out the Top 5, once again, is FamilyFunPack. America’s favorite family of seven scored just shy of 85.4 million views throughout the week.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of our Top Gainers this week goes to The Dr. Phil Show.
The YouTube home of CBS’ syndicated daytime talk show Dr. Phil had a great week on the world’s largest video-sharing site thanks to the return of a guest who became a full-fledged internet meme.
Danielle Bregoli was a seemingly troubled 13-year-old with an attitude and car-stealing problem when her mother brought her onto Dr. Phil McGraw’s television show in hopes of taming her wild side. It didn’t quite work. Wehn Bregoli grew tired of the audience laughing at her throughout the taping, she yelled out “Catch me outside, how about that?” with a thick, kinda slippery Cajun accent, which made her words sound more like “Cash me ousside, howbow dah.” The internet was instantly obsessed. About five months later, McGraw invited Bregoli and her mom onto his show again to see what – if anything – changed since their previous talk (and a quick stint at Turn-About Ranch). Thanks to the teenager’s newfound celebrity, a lot of people tuned in.
A clip from Dr. Phil’s follow-up interview racked up a view count in the multimillions, helping his show’s channel to its first appearance on the chart, a 43% week-over-week increase in views, almost 50.6 million views on the week, and the #22 spot on the U.S. chart.
Channel Distribution
The top 50 most viewed U.S. YouTube channels this week amassed a total of 2,818,098,084 views. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
VEVO: 18 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Shakira the top-ranked channel of the network at #3.
Maker Studios: 3 channels in the Top 50, with FGTeeV at #23.
BroadbandTV, BuzzFeed, CBS, Movieclips, NBCU, Studio71: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BBTV’s WorldStarHipHop at #8, BuzzFeed’s BuzzFeed Video at #39, CBS’ The Dr. Phil Show at #22, Movieclips’ Movieclips at #14, NBCU’s Saturday Night Live at #11, and Studio71’s FamilyFunPack at #5.
OpenSlate is a video content analytics platform that tracks more than 800,000 YouTube video channels and measures their ability to attract, engage and influence an audience. By providing one consistent measure of quality – the SlateScore™ – OpenSlate helps marketers, producers and agencies hone their online video marketing strategy.
[Editor’s Note: Tubefilter Charts is a weekly rankings column from Tubefilter with data provided by OpenSlate. It’s exactly what it sounds like; a top number ranking of YouTube channels based on statistics collected within a given time frame. Check out all of our Tubefilter Charts with new installments every week right here.]
Scroll down for this week’s Tubefilter Chart.
It’s another installment of the weekly Tubefilter Chart of the Top 50 Most Viewed YouTube Channels Worldwide and people watch a LOT of Indian entertainment online.
T-Series is in first place on the worldwide chart for the twenty-fifth week in a row. The self-described largest music label and movie studio in India’s YouTube channel ended the week up 3% and just shy of 244.5 million views. In a distant second place is Ryan ToysReviews. Titular Ryan’s destination for every toddler’s toy unboxing and playtime fix dipped 9% to bottom out at more than 164.1 million views.
Up next in the #3 spot is Canal KondZilla. Brazil’s YouTube home for poppy music video hits amassed almost 153.3 million views in the week. That pushed Ed Sheeran down to fourth place. After a banner week on the world’s largest video sharing site, the British singer-songwriter’s YouTube channel was down 56% to close out the week with more than 149.8 million views.
And rounding out the Top 5, one again, is SET India. The Indian and YouTube iteration of Sony Entertainment Television dipped 12% in views to come in just under 137.1 million views in the week.
Top Gainers
The honor of one of the Top Gainers on the chart this week goes to Katy Perry.
The 32-year-old singer and songwriter had a great week on YouTube thanks to her first music video upload in the last six months. The lyric video for “Chained To The Rhythm ft. Skip” seemingly took its inspiration from Tastemade’s Streamy Award-winning Tiny Kitchen series and videos featuring tiny hamsters eating miniaturized versions normal human food items. It quickly racked up an eight-figure view count. Add that to Perry’s robust online video catalog and you end up with a 19% week-over-week increase in views, more than 86.7 million views on the week, and the #16 spot on the worldwide chart.
Channel Distribution
The top 50 most viewed YouTube channels worldwide this week amassed a total of 4,156,490,584 views. Here’s the distribution of a few of those channels by multi-channel network:
VEVO: 8 channels in the U.S. Top 50, with Shakira the highest-ranked channel of the network at #12.
Studio71: 3 channels in the Top 50, with Family Fun Pack at #17.
BroadbandTV, WMG, XMediaDigital: 2 channels each in the Top 50, with BBTV’s WorldStarHipHop at #24, WMG’s Ed Sheeran at #4, and XMediaDigital’s mashamedvedtv at #13.
And here’s the distribution of the this week’s Top 50 YouTube channels by country of origin:
United States: 21 channels in the Top 50.
India: 8 channels in the Top 50.
Great Britain: 5 channels in the Top 50.
Brazil, Canada, Russia, Thailand: 2 channels each in the Top 50.
Argentina, Ireland, Netherlands, Philippines, Puerto Rico, South Korea, Sweden, Turkey: 1 channel each in the Top 50.
OpenSlate is a video content analytics platform that tracks more than 800,000 YouTube video channels and measures their ability to attract, engage and influence an audience. By providing one consistent measure of quality – the SlateScore™ – OpenSlate helps marketers, producers and agencies hone their online video marketing strategy.
The Special Olympics announced this week their first-ever social fundraising collaboration with the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe(with which Tubefilter readers should be familiar, as it’s the platform of choice for YouTube stars who want to raise cash for an important cause). The partnership will help support a number of teams, delegations, and athletes by providing funds to help make their Olympic dreams a reality.
“We are proud to partner with Special Olympics to help support these remarkable athletes and their communities,” said GoFundMe CEO, Rob Solomon, in the release. “GoFundMe’s mission is to empower people to help people, and Special Olympics has been helping to empower people with intellectual disabilities for almost 50 years. It’s an honor to share the stories of these competitors who have overcome obstacles.”
The efforts of the shiny new collaboration will first be realized March 14 through March 25, 2016 in Graz, Schladming, Rohrmoos, and Ramsau, Austria, where over 2,700 athletes from more than 100 countries will descend upon the wintery European arenas and slopes for some good, old-fashioned, worldwide competition. But those athletes won’t be the only individuals at the Special Olympics 2017 World Winter Games. A number of other athletes and celebrities will be in attendance, too.
Olympic gold medalists Apolo Ohno and Hanna Teter, NBA Hall of Famer and famous finger-wagger Dikembe Mutumbo, personal trainer extraordinaire Jillian Michaels, Grammy Award-winning artist Jason Mraz, and many more will be in attendance at the Games and launching their own GoFundMe campaigns to show their support. They’ll also soon be joined by four of YouTube creators as Official Honored Guests.
Tubefilter has partnered with the Special Olympics and GoFundMe to bring members of the YouTube and online video community to the Games in Austria as Honored Guests. There’s more to come soon, but in the meantime you can check out all the GoFundMe campaigns supporting the Special Olympics – and contribute if you feel so moved – right here.
Filed under: Articles, Crowdfunding, News by Joshua Cohen Comments Off on GoFundMe And Special Olympics Launch Global Partnership
We receive a ton of tips every day from independent creators, unaffiliated with any major motion picture studios, television networks, new media studios, or other well-funded online video entities. The Indie Spotlight is where we’ll write about and shout out to a select few of them and bring you up to speed on the great (and sometimes not-so-great) attention-grabbing series you probably haven’t heard about until now. Read previous installments here.
Here at Tubefilter, we’re no strangers to web series that examine the pressures that come with family planning, but few of those shows are as madcap as Ovulady. Abby Feldman‘s screwball series follows a protagonist who is desperate to get pregnant and will resort to dubious means to try to get what she wants.
In her series, Feldman (best known for her role in the Netflix miniseries Gringolandia) portrays a self-titled protagonist who, as noted in a press release, is a “sexual novice” who nonetheless has big plans for her future. In the first episode, Abby hooks up with a man who quickly realizes he is in way over his head. Abby fails in her mission, but she does end up with a free sock, so not all is lost.
Ovulady works because Feldman succeeds in playing crazy. With her bulging eyes and an off-putting smile, Abby (the character) is over-the-top in an Overly-Attached Girlfriend sort of way, which makes her misadventures all the more ridiculous. Keep an eye on Feldman’s Facebook page to see what shenanigans Abby gets up to next.
OTHER UNDER-THE-RADAR SERIES TO CHECK OUT
Unicornland. The practice of hooking up with couples is examined in this comedy.
Girl/Girl Scene. This pilot opts for a nuanced portrayal of its lesbian protagonists.
Enigma. Humanity heads to underground bunkers in this post-apocalyptic sci-fi web series.
Got a series you’d like to see featured in the Indie Spotlight? Be sure to contact us here. For best coverage, please include a full episode in your e-mail.
Filed under: Articles, Featured, Indie Spotlight, News by Sam Gutelle Comments Off on Indie Spotlight: ‘Ovulady’ Follows A Woman Who Is Literally Baby Crazy
